Strasbourg saddles up for operation Bike to Work

The 20th edition of France's Festival of Cycling, taking place this weekend in 500 towns and cities across the country, has special significance in Strasbourg.

The Alsatian city, knows as the "Crossroads of Europe", is adopting an innovative approach to transport policy, including an initiative called "Bike to work" scheduled for June 6 to 19 which is winning an enthusiastic response from the local population.

More than simply a fun way to exercise in a convivial atmosphere, the Festival of Cycling, which is expected to mobilize some 500,000 people across France over this weekend, has evolved into a tool for modifying people's behavior when it comes to urban transport.

Strasbourg has the largest "bicycle network" in France -- more than 600 km of cycle paths -- and the city advocates a proactive policy that is the envy of many other French regions.

As a transport mode cycling's share is already over 15 percent in Strasbourg city center, and the council has dubbed Strasbourg as the "city where the bicycle is king". The local council has even set a target of 16 percent of all daily trips to be made by bicycle by 2025.

To attract employers as well as their employees, Bike to Work challenges participants to moderate how people use their cars, switching where possible to multimodal transport in order to reduce air pollution, greenhouse gas emissions and generally improve the living environment, say Strasbourg officials.

The rules of the challenge are simple: each participating organization (businesses, local authorities, private and cooperative associations) have to accumulate the highest number of bike km made by employees on their daily commutes to work between June 6 and 19, 2016.

Compared with the rest of France, the Alsace region has a deeply rooted "Germanic" culture of ecology, including regular bike use. So against a background in which cycling has become more popular amid growing concerns over environmental issues, a "bike mileage allowance" (in French the indemnite kilometrique velo, or IKV), which was launched nationally in February, could have a promising future.

Under the terms of the IKV, biking to work can under certain circumstances entitle cyclists to a mileage allowance of 0.25 euro per km traveled between home and work for each day actually worked.

The logic being that by giving people a financial incentive to change their transport habits they know that each turn of the pedals earns them money. However, for the scheme to work, employers must initiate the scheme and compensate employees. In return the employer can set this compensation against his or her tax bill. Endit